One step closer...

to walking!

here is a video of the little guy last week. i realized that he may enjoy using this walker instead of pushing quade's little chair around the house. today he took 3 steps independently. we're okay if he doesn't start really walking for awhile. he's much safer on all fours...but it is cute to see him walking around.

Our family of 6

For a week this was our little family:My sister and her husband were in san fran and so my niece (almost 14 yrs old)

and nephew (15) stayed with us. It gave me a little insight into my mom's world when i was young...when i was 3 years old my sister was 19, my older brother was 14 and my younger brother was 1.

Here are some pics from our time together...

typical morning...watching curious george

this was near the end of the week and the teenagers were exhausted...

staying up late does not go well with young children who get up early.

even though it looks like stephen just slept on the couch the whole time, he was actually a HUGE help with the boys. He played with Quade a ton, stayed home while price napped so i could leave the house, fed price, changed diapers, the list goes on. he is going to make a great dad some day.

quade and stephen playing guitar hero...stephen is quade's hero.

homework time (summer math pages)...quade joined the big kids by working on his letters

Allison and i had a great time shopping and getting pedicures.

She is a super sweet girl and was wonderful with the boys. She had

some great conversations with quade that i overheard.

She was also on price poopy diaper watch =)

saying good bye is so hard to do

Having 4 kids (and having teenagers) made me realize a few things:

1) you have to be very organized

2) you have to be intentional to have quality conversation with your husband. we are so used to talking about life, work, future during dinner and after the kids go to bed. When you have teenagers around you talk with them during dinner and they stay up as late as you and sometimes later than you do.

3) you get very good at playing video games

4) chaos can be FUN!!!

5) there is a lot of love and laughter with a house full of kids.

peek-a-boo i love you

i heard these crazy guys laughing and was able to capture a little of their sweet game.

yummy healthy treat

i've recently become addicted to the t.v. show "Jon & kate plus eight". on a episode i just watched, sara snow, the host of "green living" , came to teach kate some new organic recipes, etc.

She made these healthy oatmeal cookies that looked yummy. i was immediately inspired and went out that afternoon with the boys to whole foods.
it took me longer than i thought it would to find all the ingredients, so we didn't make them until the next afternoon. but it was worth the wait...delicious!

i grew up on health food (natural peanut butter, whole wheat bread, etc.). something in my body said "thank you for the amazing treat!" after the first bite. what's great is that you can eat them for breakfast or an afternoon snack. amazing.

here is the recipe (i used craisins and dried blueberries instead of apricots and raisins):

HEALTHY OATMEAL COOKIE SNACKS

INGREDIENTS
2 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup ground flax seed
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
½ t nutmeg
½ t cardamom

½ cup (1 stick) organic butter – room temperature
½ cup natural cane sugar
2 organic eggs
½ cup honey
1 t vanilla extract

1 small apple, peeled and chopped
½ cup goji berries or raisins
½ cup chopped dates or apricots
1 cup chopped walnuts or almonds (optional)
1 ½ cups coconut
3 cups old fashioned organic oats
1⁄4 cup applesauce

INSTRUCTIONS
Stir together dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda and spices).
In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars. Add in honey, eggs and vanilla. Slowly add in dry mixture and beat together. Stir in oats, applesauce, coconut, fruit and nuts.
Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheet.
Bake 12-14 minutes at 350.
Makes 2 dozen

doing something right...

In the past few weeks i have been re-evaluating a lot of things in my life. One of these things is my parenting. I have felt like in the chaos of having a toddler and newborn i have just been trying to "get by" instead of building into these precious boys' lives.

Well today i had a few moments with quade that i don't want to forget so i'm documenting them here.

at lunch quade asked for some ketchup and when stephen, his older cousin, went to get it Quade sweetly said(without promping), "thank you stephen".

Then later in the lunch quade turns to stephen and says in a very sympathetic voice "stephen i'm sorry your house is broken". (stephen's parents recently found out they have foundation problems).

the biggest moment of the day was at nap time...

Quade has been giving us a harder time than normal going down for his nap. Today i had read him his story told him is was time to go to sleep and usually he screams and tells me he wants me to sleep with him.

I was fully expecting this behavior and was ready with my firm "quade it's time to go to sleep".

INSTEAD he says "mommy i want Jesus in my tummy".

Wow! this is it, the big moment!

H: "okay quade then let's pray together. you say what i say. dear jesus..."

Q: "dear jesus"

H: "please come into my heart...

Q: "please come into my heart...

H: " and forgive me of my sins."

Q: "and forgive me of my sins so i can see you in heaven. Amen" =) (he added his own ending).

Then the conversation continued from there. he was so sweet and took it very seriously. He was so excited that jesus was in his heart now. He asked if his friend Andrew had jesus in his heart. I told him yes. He asked about his friend Cale and i told him that Cale may ask jesus in his heart when he gets a little older. Quade said he would tell Cale about Jesus. We talked for 10 minutes and it was the most precious conversation.

After covering his face in kisses I said okay it's time to take a nap.

He said "Jesus in my heart is going to take a nap, but i'm not tired." HA!

These are the moments that make all the exhausting times worth it!

belting it out...it's genetic

so quade has decided this is his favorite song to sing these days...good thing he has a captive audience (his adoring little brother). without further ado...the "2 blondes"!!



If you'd like to hear where he learned this infamous 4 non-blonde's ditty, see the video clip below from our new year's eve tacky formal. (don't worry grandma with quade we sing "oh my goodness, did i try...")

cousin pj pics...6 months later

Christmas Eve 2007

June 28, 2008

After 6 months they are still a wild bunch!

identical cousin quiz

In this game you have to figure out which cute blond child
is Quade and which one is his cousin Willem (who is 11 months younger than Quade).

(hint: willem is on the left in this picture)

They are two sweet boys!

presidential superhero

Living in America can be confusing for a two-year old.
The other day Quade found this little figure and told me it
was James Polk....

With all the advertising around for the Incredible Hulk
I can see how he could get confused.

Table for two please!

Price is gradually boycotting being spoon fed and wanting to feed himself more & more.
I found it pretty hilarious when i put some peas on his tray and came back to find Quade had
pulled a chair up to join him in his little snack.

Spraying water is FUN!

This was price's first trip to the spray park and as you can see it was a big hit

He did a crazy crawl to avoid touching his knees

Quade's friend Cale enjoyed his first trip to the spray park as well

"Woohoo! this is FUN! Right baby price?"